Tractor.



TRACTUJEE@ neonata.

specincatton of Letters Patent. Patented. dpr., dill, llgllda Application' Medvuly 16, 19W.. Serial It'o. 180382..

To all' whom it mty concern."

Be it known thatl, EDWARD U. Sorrow, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful llrnprove ments in Tractors-7 of which the following is a specification."

This invention relates to tractors and more particularly to a tractor adapted for coperation with other tractors in the hauling of heavy loads.

According to one feature of the invention, the tractor is provided at one end, with means whereby a following vehicle may be operably connected thereto for hauling', backing, and relative turning nmovements and at the other end with means, whereby the last-named end may be' supported on an end of a preceding tractor to be operably backed, hauled, and steered thereby.v

According to another feature of the invention, a series ofltractors are operably connected one with another for voperably hauling,I backing, and steering relatively heavy loads, each tractor being supported at one end by its driving wheels and the.

other end of each except the leading tractor being; Supported upon the preceding tractor with its steering wheels in elevated position, whereby all the weight of all the tractors save part of the foremost tractor in the series is brought to bear on the driving wheels as a unit to obtain increased traction.

According to another feature of the invention, veach tractor of theseries is provided at its rear-end with the lower part of a fth wheel device arranged above the axle of the driving` wheels, and at its for.-v

ward end with the upper part of a iifth wheel device, kwhereby said upper part of one tractor. may be supported on said lower part of another tractor with its steering wheels in elevated position.. rangement, each tractor will turn to follow the preceding tractor and the leading tractor, the steering wheels of which rest on the ground, will steer the entire series or train.l

7lhe train as a whole will follow the leading' tractor in the same manner as a linked chain follows when one end is drawn along a curved path,

@ther features of the invention will a pear in the illustrative embodiment of it in the. accompanying drawing, in which`- Figure l is an elevation view showing a By' this ar-.

seriesy of tractors connected in accordance with the invention for hauling a heavy load; and i Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section view illus- 'trative of the connection between the trac tors or between a tractor and the load to be transported. l

Referring to these drawings, A. represents the tractor, b the steering wheels, and cl the driving wheels thereof.y The tractor may be of any suitable type and that shown herein is merely an illustrative example of one which is suitable for the present pur-y posesa As illustrated, the driving' wheels are arranged on a stationary or dead rearl axle -0Z and are driven by a chain c and suitable sprockets (not shown) in a manner well known in the art. bviously,` any other` form of drive may be employed, as desired. At the rear of each 'tractor `and preferably located with its center directly above therear axle d is the lower part of a suitable fifth .wheel` device, which is represented merely vin conventional form by reference letter f. The device may be of any des sirable 'construction and may be supported from axle (Il in any suitable manner., Preferably, it issupported as indicated in lig. Qlupon springs g which have a pivotal connection it with axle d' to permit a fore and aft 'rocking of the vehicle connected thereto as will .'appear. 'lhe rear end of the tractonas shown, is supported independently of springs g' from axle al by springs c', but may be otherwise supported as desired. The described 'construction is, however, pre ferred and fora more complete disclosure, reference is made to lll. S. Letters Patent lilo. lldfl, eranted' February 20, l9l2,""to Charles lll. ll/lartin, which patent discloses the essential elements of the spring suspenosionadeseribed, u n o lhe 'forward 'end or each tractor is prolllll lill tractors for cooperative action in the hauling of heavy loads, such as the cannon K illustrated in F ig. l. The cannon is suitably supported at one end by wheels Z and at the other end bearsa device jwhich is adapted to mate with the part f on a tractor A. The forward end of the latter is suitably raised, as by jacks, for example, and

another tractor A is backed in under the described elevated end, whereupon the latter is lowered to bring the part j on one into mating engagement with the part f on the other, in a manner similar to that in which ordinary trailers are connected to a tractor. Other tractors are similarly connected one to another and to the described tractors until a sutlicient number has been connected in series to haul the load K. rlhe steering wheels 3) of each tractor, except the leading one of the series are raised from the ground and the steering wheels of the leading tractor only remain upon the ground. The leading tractor is not shown as itmay be exactly the' saine as the tractors illustrated except that its forward end is not in 'elevated position. An ordinary tractor without the part j at its forward end may obviously be used as the leading tractor if desired.

Thus, a series of separately operable trac tors may be` connected 'one to another into -a seriesfso that all may be generally steered by the foremost in the series and form a most etfective traction train. lt is also'y to be noted that the pivotal connection le, permits one vehicle to rock fore and aft with re spect to another, as for example when thevehicles are traveling over rough roads or uneven ground.

An important advantage ows from connecting a series of tractors in the manner described for the connected series functions for all practical purpose as a single 'trac.

tion unit. This `unit comprises as many pairs of driving Wheels as there are tractors and only one set of edectively operable steering wheels'. As distinguishedfrom a single vehicle having a plurality of sets of driving wheels, the 'traction unit is flexible for convenient and effective steering, and it is ilexible in another sense, namely, in that the number of traction wheels may be 'conveniently varied from a minimum s'ucient for hauling light loads to as manyas may be necessary for hauling heavy loads. The size of the unit may thus be varied as necessitated by the varying character of the load to be hauled.

It is to be noted that, `with the ordinary tractor, the weight upon the driving wheels thereof necessary to obtain the desired tractive etfort is generally lobtained largely by supporting a part of the load to be hauled upon the driving Wheels. A relatively small part only of the weight of the tractor itself bears upon its driving wheels. With the described arrangement, however, all the weight of all the tractors, except part of the weight of the leading tractor, is brought to bear upon the driving wheels as a unit for increased traction. The arrangement is, therefore, characterized by bringing into useful effect upon the driving wheels practically all that Weight of the tractors, which has heretofore been ineffective for traction purposes, whereby a maximum of tractive effort may be obtained from a given number of tractors.

The invention has been described herein for illustrative purposes, but the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description.

lWhat l claim is-d 1. A tractor having means at one end for connection to a trailing vehicle to support the forward end of the latter, andv means at its other end for connection to another vehicle, whereby its own forward end may be supported with its steering wheels elevated by such other vehicle.

2. A tractor having drivin and steering Wheels, means adjacent the driving Wheels for connection with a trailing vehicle, and an upper fifth wheel part adj acentthe steer- ,ing wheels, and constructed to support the steering end of the tractor with its stecr ing wheels elevated upon a mating fifth Wheel part of another tractor.

3. The combination with a tractor, of means at one end to support an end of an other vericle for operable hauling, backing, and relative turning movements with the tractor, and means at the other end of vthe tractor to support such end from an end of a second vehicle so that the tractor is connected for operable hauling and relative turning movements with the second vehicle.

Il. The combination with a tractor having driving and steering wheels, of means adjacent the driving wheels to support one end of another vehicle for operable hauling and relative turning movements with the tractor, and means adjacent the other end of the tractor to support such end with the steer- \ing wheels elevated upon an end of a sec ond vehicle for operable hauling and relaivr turning movements with the second ve- 5. The combination with a tractor having front steering and rear driving wheels, of means above the latter to support the fore end of another vehicle for operable hauling, backing, and relative turnlng movements with the tractor, and means to support the front `end of the tractor from the rear end of anothervehicle for operable hauling, backing, and relative turning movements with the last-named vehicle.

6. The combination with a tractor having rear and front wheels, of a lower fifth wheel lOO menare 5 formed With increased traction for hauling heavy loads. l

7. A series of tractors, one end of each being supported by its driving Wheels and the other end of each except' the foremost trac- 10 tor of theiseries being supported from the rear of the preceding tractor for operable hauling, backing, and relative turning movements.

8. 'A series of tractors connected one to an- 15tother for operable hauling and backing movements, each tractor having driving Wheels to support one end thereof and steering Wheels to support the other end When disconnected, the front end of each tractor 20 except the first in the series being supported upon the preceding tractor ivith the steering wheels lifted out of supporting position, all constructed and arranged so that the irst tractor steers.J the others of the series and so that fall the weight of all the tractors except the irst and part ot the iii-st is edective upon the driving Wheels as a unit for increased traction.

9. A series ot tractors, one end of each being supported by its driving Wheels and the other end of each except the foremost tractor of the series being supported upon a preceding tractor vto turn yon a vertical axis, the latter being substantially in the saine vertical plane as the axis ci the driving Wheels of the preceding tractor, the foremost tractor oi the serieshavin its other end supported .by steering Whee s, and arranged to steer the entire series et tractors.

10. A tractor having means at one end for connection .to a trailing vehicle, and means at its other end for connection to another vehicle, whereby its own forward end may be supported with its steering 'Wheels elevated by such other vehicle i EDWD (D. SUWTN. 

